Notorious pedophile identified and believed to be in Thailand

Published 10:00 pm, Monday, October 15, 2007

PARIS -- A suspected pedophile sought in a worldwide Interpol manhunt has been identified and is believed to be in Thailand, the international police organization said Monday.

The man was allegedly shown sexually abusing 12 young Vietnamese and Cambodian boys, apparently ranging in age from 6 to early teens, in about 200 photographs posted on the Internet. The man's face was disguised in the photos as a digitalized whirl.

Using techniques that neither they nor Interpol would discuss, German police recreated an image of the man's face and released four reconstructed photos of him last week.

Interpol said more than 350 people then supplied tips to authorities worldwide, leading them to identify the man as an English teacher who worked at a school in South Korea.

Interpol said it now knows the suspect's name, nationality, date of birth and passport number, but it did not release that information in its statement. It said the man flew from Seoul, South Korea, to Bangkok, Thailand, last Thursday, with security cameras documenting his arrival at Thai immigration. Interpol again appealed for public help to track him down now.

"Thailand is at the center of an international manhunt, and authorities in the country, in co-operation with Interpol and police around the world, are hunting him down," Interpol's secretary general, Ronald K. Noble, said in a statement.